


i'll taste the sky and feel alive again

by Skyebyrd



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Adoption, Coming Out, Dirty Talk, Domestic Fluff, Family, Kid Fic, M/M, Marriage, Panic Attacks, Riding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 18:46:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2783873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyebyrd/pseuds/Skyebyrd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>There have been countless Most Important Moments in Louis’ lifetime (seeing Harry for the first time in line for the X Factor, meeting him in the bathroom, One Direction being formed, kissing Harry for the first time, fucking Harry for the first time, proposing to Harry for the first time, proposing to Harry for the last time, marrying Harry), but he thinks this might be the most important moment of all; the moment when it stops being just LouisandHarry and begins being LouisandHarryandAbigail. </i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>  <i>The moment Louis finally finds his family.</i></p><p> </p><p>in which harry is turned into a blueberry, louis is a bundle of nerves, zayn is The Best Uncle TM, niall fights for that position more often than is deemed appropriate, and liam is still, somehow, the responsible one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'll taste the sky and feel alive again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hazkaban](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazkaban/gifts).



> ABOUT THE PANIC ATTACK!!! Harry has a panic attack, and Gale gets really hurt- if that kind of stuff sets you off, please stop reading at "Gale's first birthday" and pick up again at "The first few months were hectic" and please feel free to ask someone (or me, once this is revealed) about what happens :) 
> 
> based off of this prompt from hazkaban: 
> 
> Canon-divergent (aka there was never any eleanor but that's like, the only divergence of it) Kidfic. The band is on hiatus because Perrie is pregnant and Liam and Sophia are getting married. Harry and Louis, who are already married, finally get the a-ok to adopt a bb and they do. Full of fluff, some angst, harry fussing in a sassy yet adorable way, louis putting his big-brother skills into full effect when the baby won't eat. (maybe the baby is about 6 months old; that way the kid has a personality and it's not a newborn and therefore eventually starts crawling which gives louis, surprisingly, a heart attack every time s/he takes off. BASICALLY just a bunch of fluff and adorable babies. niall is the best uncle, liam fusses a lot, sophia is great, perrie is Really pregnant, and zayn is actually the babies favourite person ever. 
> 
> tbh this got so fucking far away from me it’s ridiculous; it’s long and a lot but (almost) everything you asked for is included somewhere!! i also kind of assumed that when you said the only difference is that there was no eleanor meant they were still closeted, so i hope that's okay omg
> 
> Thank you so much to my beta jen (teattoos) and my brit-pick cassie (boyfriendsinlove); y’all the real MVPs. 
> 
> i hope you enjoy this! this is my first fic for the 1D fandom, and i'm really happy it's this one, i loved writing this so much!!!
> 
> EDIT: i edited this like idk a couple hours after it was posted, just a few typos i didn't catch the first time around; sorry to my gift recipient that it wasn't wholly complete upon publishing!
> 
> EDIT 2: hello! you can find me on my [tumblr](http://skyebyrd.tumblr.com) :)

When they got permission to appear in public together and _alone_ for the first time in three years, Harry and Louis were beyond thrilled; it was a start to their future together, to their dreams of a big wedding with their friends and family and their large house being filled with the sounds of laughter from children. Everything Harry had done with Azoff had been perfectly formulated, and they had been working with him successfully for an entire year now, being allowed things in small increments. And, really, being able to be out on something as simple as a trip to the supermarket shouldn’t have felt as amazing as it did, but they were absolutely fucking giddy with excitement.

The air felt fresher, the sky bluer, the grass greener, their smiles brighter, laughter louder. The absolute perfect day, and they would soon be able to _hold hands_ , and _kiss_ , and it was an absolute dream.

So, maybe they both got a little carried away with what was supposed to be a very small outing to test the waters of their potential coming out. But hey, they couldn’t be blamed fully- Harry’s about ninety-nine percent sure he locked that bathroom door before getting down on his knees for Louis, and they didn’t even consider that someone with a legitimate, Nikon, high-definition camera would have been in the stalls behind them. There was no avoiding that kind of evidence when it came out in the newspapers the next day, headlines screaming out about Harry- and Louis’ secret relationship and what a scandal it was.

They had been anxious over it, definitely; being caught on camera is always such a weird feeling, but the thought of it being like that was- well, it doesn’t matter now. Gratefulness was the main emotion they felt, later on. Happiness, joy.

Freedom.

The same feelings Louis gets when he looks into Abigail’s eyes for the first time, with his husband’s arms around them both.

* * *

When they wake up in the morning after the Not Publicly A Date date, Harry’s phone is ringing off the hook- well, if mobiles had hooks. Also, it’s not so much of a ring as it is Darth Vader’s theme music from _Star Wars_ , but Louis thinks the metaphor still stands.

Louis groans at being awoken by such a loud sound and burrows into their sheets as he feels Harry beginning to stir next to him.

“Babe…” Louis mumbles, snuggling into Harry’s shoulder and touching his back lightly. Harry’s laying on his stomach, snuggling closely to his pillow, mouth open and long, long curls half-done in a few braids falling over his shoulder. The early morning light filters through their sheer curtains, turning the light brown walls a shade of beige, and it illuminates Harry in all the right places; Louis’ own little angel. He glances at the clock and pouts when he sees that it’s just after six- just past fucking _sunrise_ , ugh.

The tone begins again.

“Babe, pick up your phone.” Louis says into his neck, pressing in with soft kisses, and Harry inhales deeply, eyes slowly blinking open; his eyebrows scrunch together when he hears his phone, and he slowly reaches for it just as the ringing ceases again. Harry’s left arm crashes back onto the mattress once he registers that he no longer has to grab it.

“Mmm…” Harry hums when Louis presses a few more kisses into the back of his neck, pushing his long hair back from his neck, pushing purposely (and only slightly) harder into his neck, allowing his stubble to gently scratch along the soft skin there.

Not that there aren’t quite a few marks in Harry’s skin already, mind.

Louis makes his way up Harry’s neck, nipping at the lobe of his ear. Harry’s sharp inhale when Louis bites his jaw makes him smile, teeth glowing against his tan skin.

“Yeah, babe? You gonna be good for me?” Louis trails his left hand around Harry’s stomach, sliding farther and farther down his beautifully inked skin; past the butterfly and past the laurels, to wrap a hand around his already half-hard cock. “I’m still open from how hard you fucked me last night, angel. You know that? You fucked me so good and well, I’m still ready for you; I could ride you this morning, let you sit back and enjoy yourself, if that’s what you want?”

He gently rolls Harry over, connecting their mouths together as Louis tugs a bit more on Harry’s cock, his right hand searching under the pillows for where their lube ended up after last night. Harry moans into his mouth, sharp breaths coming out of his nose when Louis tugs particularly roughly.

Louis loves morning sex, always has. Harry is always so pliant and soft, and Louis loves the way the light shines off of his skin and makes shadows out of his eyelashes.

“Do you want that, darling?” Louis breathes a bit heavily before going back in for more kisses, tongue pushing into Harry’s mouth, the gasps coming from the younger boy below him filling Louis’ gut with lust. Louis’ leg swings over Harry’s hips, straddling him, Harry’s large hands reaching around and taking a firm grip of his arse, Louis gasping into his mouth.

That’s when the phone goes off again.

Louis groans in irritation and Harry huffs, annoyed as well, but he reaches out and picks up the phone, answering before even looking at the caller. Louis rolls off of Harry, hopping off the bed and getting a bottle of water from the vanity.

He really hates being interrupted.

“Yeah, sorry, I was sleeping…” Harry says into the phone, hardly bothering to mask his irritation. That’s one of the things Louis finds so endearing about Harry: he’s the world’s largest ball of smiles and curls, but the second his time with Louis is interrupted, he becomes a big papa bear. It’s wonderful, and Louis smiles to himself as he turns on the kettle and grabs their mugs from their side tables. Wonderful invention, kettles; he doesn’t even have to leave the room for tea.

As Louis grabs the tea bags from the box and placing them in the mugs, he hears Harry confusedly ask, “No, I haven’t, why?”

He takes the sugar out of the cupboard and the milk out of their mini-fridge, placing them both on the counter next to their mugs. Ever since switching to Azoff’s management team, it’s been a lot easier to deal with issues surrounding each other and the band, but that doesn’t make the entire thing any less of a hassle. There are still quite a few ideals they have to match, body images and personal views they have to portray for the general public, but it’s overall a lot better than the shitstorm that was Modest Management.

“Yeah, he’s with me.” Louis glances over to Harry, instinctively knowing he’s being spoken about. He mouths ‘what’ over to Harry, but he just shakes his head a bit, his longlonglong curls bouncing with the movement, eyebrows scrunches up a bit. “Just right in the room…”

Okay, now Louis knows this is definitely concerning him, and he’d like to know just what the fuck it is.

Harry’s eyes widen just as the kettle goes off, and Louis jumps slightly, having forgotten about it momentarily. Harry opens the laptop and types in the passcode as Louis pours water over the tea bags and waiting a bit for the tea to soak.

“Lou, babe?” Harry’s voice sounds a bit worried, and Louis wants to take back his thought of wanting to know because he knows this is just Harry wanting him to see all the bad feedback they’ve got, shit, even Azoff’s team probably won’t let them come out officially, maybe they should’ve waited a bit longer- “Louis, you really want to see this, sweetie.”

Louis sighs deeply, taking the tea bags out of both mugs and squeezing them ever so gently. “Just a moment, Haz.” He needs a moment to breathe, so he scoops some sugar into Harry’s mug and some milk into his own, gets out the spoons, and swirls the tea around for a few moments more.  His heart’s racing, and he knows it can’t be good; what if the public reacted horribly? What if after all this time they had no one left to believe them?

Finally, when he can’t distract himself anymore from his too-fast heartbeat, he picks up both cups and heads over to the bed, kneeling over Harry to place his mug on his side table, while keeping his own in his hands while he gets comfortable. He inevitably spills a little on the bedspread, but they’ve got a lot worse there (read: lube and come). He folds himself into Harry’s side, taking a deep drink from his tea, before allowing himself to view the screen of the laptop properly.

He really should’ve swallowed all the way down first, and isn’t that the story of his fucking life, choking on his own tea while viewing what’s basically his leaked sex tape on the internet for all to see. And, for some inexplicable reason, in this very moment he’s thankful for those twitter notification settings he’d changed all those years ago, because if he hadn’t, his phone probably would have died and never recovered from the amount it would have blown up with tweets and messages from their fans. Although, now that he thinks about it, he’s sure the boys and his family have tried to ring him quite the number of times by now.

Harry claps him on the back a few times, murmuring words to him while Louis attempts to catch his breath again. He gets it in fits and starts, and Harry’s speaking back to the person on the phone and then saying goodbye and putting his phone down.

“Is that…” Louis can hardly bring himself to say it, to voice the pictures in front of him.

It’s the Daily Mail, because of fucking course it is, and they’ve at least edited out Louis’ dick and where Harry’s got his mouth wrapped around it, but it’s very clearly Louis’ face and Louis’ hand tangled in Harry’s hair and he can clearly remember how his moans had echoed around the tiles.

How often had they done this same thing even while they were with Modest? How often had they snuck into bathrooms for a quick hand job or even a fuck on the nights when they felt the most reckless, no matter if there was anyone in the toilet or not? And yet now, when they were right around the corner from peacefully coming out and telling their story, this happens?

“It is.” Harry answers, even though Louis hadn’t fully formulated his question. He guesses he doesn’t even need to.

Louis’ going to be sick.

“I’m going to be sick.” And he gets up, tea spilling over the sides of the cup he’s forgotten he was even holding (and it’s still fucking hot, because even though an eternity seems to have passed really no time at all has), and he gets to their bathroom and ends up throwing up into the toilet bowl.

It’s not a whole lot, thankfully, but it still leaves his mouth feeling acidic and his throat sore and Harry’s followed him, dutiful as ever, holding his hair back even though it isn’t long enough to warrant it needing any holding. It’s still nice to feel cared for, though, with Harry’s hands on his back and in his hair.

“It’s alright, darling, it’s fine…” Harry’s saying, ever the voice of reason, and Louis has to chuckle a bit at that.

“Your mum’s seen my o-face, love. I don’t know what screams ‘alright’ to you about that.”

Harry laughs, and Louis’ nerves ease a little bit.

Okay, so maybe it isn’t the worst thing that could possibly happen in the world. Fucking weird, and they’re sure to get a lot of backlash, but their process of coming out just got sped up a lot quicker. There’s no longer any doubt.

They’ll get more press, more interviews, more opportunities to plug their new album, and it’ll most likely be just them in interviews which has only been done once, fuck, and Paris had been such a dream; Louis smiles just at the memory of that day.

He briefly remembers all the shit from Modest they had got over it, and he suddenly appreciates their present situation a lot more.

“What’d Azoff’s team have to say about it?” Louis gets out, and Harry hands him a water bottle he must have grabbed from the vanity. Louis takes a few swigs, leaning back against the cabinets while Harry pets through his hair.

“Just wanted to inform us about it, really. Said there’s obviously no way to deny it, but we can leave it alone or address it, and they’d back us up either way.”

Louis smiles.

Everything Harry has done for them has been so amazing; he had purposely set out to L.A. all those years ago to get on Azoff’s good side, just to get this kind of environment for himself and Louis. While the other boys had of course been a huge factor in this (wanting to get rid of the personas that Modest had created for them, wanting to be able to be their own selves, their own band with their own thoughts and opinions represented), it was mainly for the two of them.

Harry wants nothing more than to be with Louis for the rest of his life, and he was going to be damned if he allowed Modest to have any more time to fuck their lives over than they had when they were young and frightened.

“And what do you think we should do, Harry?”

He smiles at him.

“Whatever you’re comfortable with. I know you kind of freaked out, so we can just not address it and continue on as if it never happened. If that’s what you want.”

Louis thinks about it for a moment, then shakes his head, chuckling a bit.

“Nah. I kinda wanna address it, if you’re okay with that?” Louis asks, leaning his head on Harry’s shoulder, cuddling up to him. It’s not for ulterior purposes, just for comfort.

He can feel Harry hum against him as much as he can hear him do so, and this’ll never get old; this closeness they both have is the most special thing he’s ever experienced in his entire life, and he’s been wanting it for the past five years.

“Alright, babe. We can do that.”

Harry presses a kiss onto the top of his head, and it feels like they’re starting all over again.

* * *

**  
**  


“Gale, will you get back here!”

Harry looks up from the stove to see a little five year old menace with blue eyes and dark brown springing curls bouncing around her head and absolutely no clothes on race around the counter and hide behind his legs, cackling loudly. Harry immediately drops the spatula, moving the pan of scrambled eggs away from the hot burner so it won’t burn the eggs as quickly, and picks up his daughter, stepping away from the stove.

“Gale, I told you that you can’t come near the stove while Daddy’s cooking! You could get hurt!” Harry says to her, but Abigail just gives him this look that’s all Louis.

“Harold, she’s a bit short to get to the stove and the oven wasn’t on. Let her live.”

Speak of the devil.

Louis comes up behind Harry and Gale, wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist and giving them both smacking kisses on the cheek. Louis’ shirt is large on him and Harry’s sure it belonged to him at some point, but they’ve been sharing clothes ever since they met; this one is white and hanging off his collarbones and he remembers it making quite a few appearances during the Where We Are tour. His stubble has been there a few days already and Gale giggles where it scratches against her soft face. The patches of light skin around her eyes crinkle up just like Louis’ does, but when she laughs it’s all Harry, loud and unapologetic, and isn’t she just the most darling thing; that, if nothing else, is proof that they’re raising the happiest girl this world’s ever seen.  

“Thanks for catching the little monster for me, love.” Louis says, giving him another kiss, this time on the mouth.

“Of course.” Harry says back, and Louis takes their daughter out of his arms.

“Daddy, I not a monster!” Gale laughs, and Louis tickles her stomach with his free hand where there’s another light patch around her bellybutton, saying “Oh, yeah?” and laughing with her. Harry returns his attention back to the stove while Louis talks to Gale after they calm down in what he guesses is supposed to be a stern voice that just sounds extremely fond and full of love.

“Gale, we all need to get dressed. You can’t just go around naked, not if you wanna go to the school today, alright?” Louis is saying to her while Harry tries to salvage the eggs as best he can.

“But Kelby runs naked outside and he just a little baby! Why I can’t?” Gale whines as Louis takes her up the stairs, and Harry chuckles. Louis hates having conversations like this, because their daughter is every bit as stubborn as Louis is.

“Kelby is a lot younger than you are, and he can barely even crawl yet, he’s allowed to be starkers.”

“Why?” She demands, and Louis sighs loudly before turning at the top of the stairs to go to her room to get her dressed. Harry knows how it’ll play out: Louis will try to get her to match and she’ll kick up a fuss until Louis gives in, and she’ll put on something awful that she will adore and eventually ruin completely once she gets outside.

“Babe, don’t forget we’re needed at the studio today! And the adoption papers for Tristan are on the bedside table and they have to be taken in tomorrow!” Harry calls up after them and he only faintly hears a “Yeah, yeah, H, stop worrying!” before Gale distracts his husband again.

She’s got them wrapped around her tiny, tiny fingers.

* * *

They’re sat in an office in London in an extension office of Azoff’s, fake plants and fake wood panelling and what feel like hard-as-a-rock cushions on their seats. They’re waiting for someone from their management team, hands clasped between them in nervousness, trying to reassure each other that it’ll all be fine and turn out well.

The door opens with a bang behind them, and Louis jumps a bit.

“Sorry I’m late, boys, my meeting ran over.” A vaguely frazzled looking woman in a navy dress says. She’s got red wavy hair done up over her head and holds her hand forward for a shake, which they both give her. “I’m Diana, by the way; I work right under Irving. Now, judging by yesterday’s headlines and your tone in the phone call, this is a bit of an urgent case?” She smiles at them, pulling out a few documents from her drawer.

She’s got a slight northern accent, and Louis appreciates the sound of home.

Harry speaks up before Louis has a chance to.

“Yeah, we’d…uh, we’d like to address them. Say the pictures are real, apologise for doing that in public, stuff like that.” Harry’s speaking even slower than usual, probably due to nerves, so Louis squeezes his hand tighter and gives him a smile when he looks over.

Diana nods, looking over to her computer and typing a few things in.

“Alright, that’s fine. Would you boys like to write it, have a radio phone in for an interview, do it over skype, in-person interview, something live…?” She rattles off, and Louis and Harry look at each other. This was something they’d thought about and they really hoped they would get a yes.

“We’d like to do an in-person recorded interview with Sugarscape, please. But with all five of us. The other boys have already agreed to it.” At Louis’ words, Diana stops typing and looks at them with a smile on her face.

“Well aren’t you two being cute? Start with ‘em, end with ‘em, yeah?” She chuckles and types in a few more things. “I’ll send them an e-mail in a few minutes, get it all settled out. We’ll try to fix a date for the end of the week, beginning of next. I’ll e-mail you guys the questions they come up with so you can get your answers ready.” Again, she clacks the keys, toggling between a few screens, typing again. Louis doesn’t understand how she can type so many things up in such a short time; they’ve barely begun anything, and yet there she is, going at it. It’s ridiculous.

They both nod along with her words, familiar enough with the interview process.

“Any questions or themes you want Sugarscape to avoid, lads?” She questions, looking up from the screen.

Louis and Harry look at each other.

Harry shrugs at him, and Louis knows it means he’s comfortable with whatever topics Louis is comfortable with. An immense wave of relief passes through Louis, and he can’t stop himself from leaning over and kissing the love of his life straight on the mouth, if just for a moment.

“I love you,” they whisper against each other’s mouths.

Louis returns to the question at hand, turning back to Diana, who had politely ignored them for a moment; however, if her faintly flushed cheeks were anything to go by, she definitely noticed.  

“I suppose anything will go, but I’ll have the other boys call you if they want something to avoid. Or if I or Hazza come up with something later.” Louis clears his throat. “And…thank you. For asking that. Modest was really shit about making sure we were comfortable, so. Thanks.”

“Alright,” she says, “do you boys have any questions about this? I know you’re pretty familiar with the process at this point, but just in case.”

Harry hesitates for a moment before, “This is so stupid, probably, but will we get charged with public indecency?”

Louis laughs for a brief moment, even though Harry does bring up a good point.

Diana just smiles. “No, not unless someone charges you for it personally. I don’t think the police will do anything about it.” She pauses, and then, “If they do, there won’t be a major trial involved, just charges and then the fine and maybe community service. Nothing major. There hasn’t been any word of you two being charged, though, far as I’m aware. But, anything else I should know before we wrap up?”

Louis bites his bottom lip, looking to Harry, who shrugs at him, a “go ahead” and an “I trust you.”

“There _is_ one more thing…”

* * *

“A-ah! Yeah, yes, yes, yeah, oh, _God_ -” Louis is crying out on him, a hymn of praises to Harry as he pushes up into him, the smaller boy bouncing down. “Fuck!”

“You’re always so- sososo fucking tight, babe, God, love it, love you-” Harry’s skin is slick, and his grip on Louis’ hips is slipping but he hangs on tight, knowing and loving that it will bruise, dark and in the shape of long fingers that everyone will know are his. Louis is his, just as much as he is Louis’, and he’s _inside_ of him, is _kissing_ him as Louis moves on top of him, bouncing up and down on his cock, adoring every second of it.

Louis’ face is pinched tight, mouth open in ecstasy and his lashes clumping together from the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. Harry reaches one of his hands up, wiping them away, murmuring to his boy just how beautiful, just how good he is, always has been and always will be.

“You are my perfect, perfect boy, Lou. So beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, working yourself on my cock like that.” Harry continues speaking, bending his legs and planting his feet on the sheets; Louis gets the hint and grabs onto Harry’s knees, and he moves his head directly into the light, so it scatters around his head like a halo.

Harry’s never been more in love in his entire life, and he thinks that every second of every day.

Louis moves his hips up, and Harry wipes his hands off on the sheets, trying to make them more dry so he can get a better grip on his boy; he grabs onto Louis’ hips again, and proceeds to drive his hips upward, hard and fast, again and again. Louis moans loudly, Harry matching just as easily, and it’s been so long (weeks) of them not having the time to spend together like this; the four and a half years of Gale being in their lives has been the busiest they've ever had, including their early years when it felt they never had time for a break to just _breathe_. She’s certainly the most important thing that’s ever happened to either of them- ever- but sometimes a break is really great, because Gale’s an absolute force of nature.

She gets that from Louis; Harry is sure of it.

Louis eventually gets too overwhelmed by the relentless force of Harry’s hips, and he slumps over, boneless, as Harry continues fucking up into him, over and over and over and over. Louis mouths at the birds on his chest, presses open-mouthed kisses all along his collarbone, licking up his neck and eventually kissing Harry’s mouth as he comes, spurting white all over Harry’s butterfly. Harry follows a few strokes after, coming inside Louis and relishing in the thought that he’ll get to eat it out later in the shower.

Harry pulls out a few moments later, both of their breathing heavy as Louis lays on top of him, forehead pressed into his neck. Their breaths eventually even out, and they lie there naked on top of the bed.

“Well…happy anniversary, babe.” Louis chuckles, voice straggly and fucked-out. Harry presses their mouths together, wanting to preserve the feeling for a few beats longer. “And as much as I love our daughter, I am so happy Sophia wanted to practice being a mum on her so we could be alone tonight.”

Harry chuckles. “Me, too.” And, after a moment, “She was so sad it wasn’t Perrie and Zayn offering this time around, though. She can’t quite wrap her head around how they’ve got to take care of Samira, now, too, and not just Brandon. Did you know she told me it’s impossible to have another kid once you’ve already had one?”

“No kidding!” Louis laughs, “She’s also somehow got it into her head that Brandon is her brother; I mean, they might as well be, but it’s still so cute.”

They both laugh over their daughter’s antics, but as their gazes lock and Louis’ fingers trail through his hair again, it dies down.

“I really, really do love you, Louis. I’ve done it for twelve years now, I’ll do it for an eternity more.” Harry whispers against Louis’ skin, foreheads pressed together. Louis’ eyes do what they always do when they look at Harry: twinkle and shine with giddy love.

“Well, that’s proper awkward considering I hate you.” Louis smirks, one of his fingers tracing down Harry’s chest; Harry laughs loudly and widely and goes to cover his mouth with his hand, a habit from when he was younger, but Louis grabs his hand. “Please don’t…you know I hate when you do that. Don’t be ashamed that you’re happy, love. Don’t cover it.” Louis leans down and kisses him, solid. “You’re always so beautiful.”

Harry kisses him again with a wide smile, entwining their fingers together. The rope and anchor line up perfectly, as they have since what the boys refer to as The Dark Ages.

(It’s only slightly a joke).

They fall asleep soon after their shower (where Harry definitely did eat Louis out and successfully gained the fourth orgasm of the night), curled up together in their large, soft bed in their large, cosy home.

\-- --

**  
**  


The next morning, Harry’s alarm sounds off, one of those remixes Liam used to do on their songs that are just annoying enough to wake him up every day. Louis snuffles a breath against Harry’s neck, his legs shifting around slightly, his toes pointing just a bit more than before as he stretches.

“Shut that thing off before I toss it across the room, would you?” Louis huffs out, voice husky from sleep and blowing Harry twice yesterday (three times, if you counted just a few minutes after midnight to be the same day). Harry chuckles before moving Louis’ arm from where it had been draped across his chest, sliding out from underneath it and over to his side of the bed to better reach the phone; he shuts the alarm off with a quick swipe and then goes to make sure the other alarms are turned off.

Louis rolls onto his other side when Harry slides back under the covers, allowing Harry to paste his front to Louis’ gentle curves with ease.

“Time to get up,” Harry sings into Louis’ ear softly, Louis grumbling.

“Don’t bring that shit up again, Haz.”

Harry can see where Louis’ smile pushes his cheeks up, though.

“We gotta go make breakfast _and_ pick up the princess from Li’s _and_ go to the aquarium with her and Kelby. Busy, busy day.” Harry says, and Louis rolls his head back a bit to look Harry in the eyes. They smile at each other briefly before sharing a soft, sweet, smacking kiss.

“Remind me why we’re on Kelby duty again?” Louis sighs, stretching out again before sitting up and rolling out of bed, Harry following suit.

“Because Niall and Babs are still new parents who aren’t used to having a baby twenty-four/seven yet; the least we can do is give them some downtime.” Harry pulls on a grey tee followed by a dark blue button-up flannel. “Besides, we’ve had Gale for four years now and still need a break. It’d be a bit hypocritical of us to not let them have a day off, yeah?”

Louis shrugs. “Yeah, I get it. Can’t imagine how they must be feeling with a complete new-born keeping them up at all hours; Gale had already got to the point where she was sleeping through the night when we got her…” Louis trails off into the hallway, his voice fading for just a moment before he came back into the room, his jumper in hand and a smirk on his face. “You’re such a teenager, Haz, honestly; leaving my clothes strewn about the house in a little love trail.”  

Harry just smiles brightly at Louis, a mixture of “Who, me?” and “I’d do it again a thousand times.”

“Can’t help it, babe. Needed you quick.” His voice is thicker than it was a moment ago, Louis wrapping his arms around Harry’s neck, up on his tip-toes as they share a long kiss; Louis pulls away to breathe after a few moments, his bottom lip caught in Harry’s teeth, a broken moan escaping his mouth. Harry feels his heartbeat quicken when Louis smirks at him, stepping away to pull his other shoe on and toss yesterday’s jumper into the hamper. “Bloody tease,” Harry murmurs as he walks out of the room and down the stairs.

Louis just laughs at him as he goes to get Gale’s bag for the day ready.

\-- --

“Hello boys!” Barbara greets them at the door a few hours later, smiling brightly despite the obvious bags under her eyes.

“Hey Babs.” Louis smiles and gives her a hug, Harry doing the same a moment later, and she leads them through the foyer. “How’s your day been?”

She shrugs at them, her long brown hair curling over her shoulder. “It’s certainly been a day. Kelby’s upstairs with his Da getting dressed, he slept a bit late so he might get a bit cranky.” She opens their refrigerator, an old picture of the five of them from their third album fluttering onto the floor. Harry bends down to pick it up automatically and smiles at how long Louis’ hair is in the photo; he also distinctly remembers the Daddy Movement™ that their fandom had gone under during that era.

“That’s fine,” Louis is saying, grabbing the few bottles out of her hand and transferring them over to Kelby’s nappy bag. “We’ve had our fair share of grumpy kids, I’m sure Kelby will be fine.”

Barbara huffs out a brief chuckle. “Yeah, you say that, but I somehow don’t think you understand just how annoying Kelby can be. He stayed up until eleven o’clock last night, Louis. _Eleven_!” Her voice is getting increasingly more high-pitched and Harry spares a brief moment to wonder where Niall is and how best to ask how to calm down a sleep-deprived new mother of one when the Irishman himself walks into the kitchen, five-month-old in hand. Niall’s singing softly to Kelby, who’s grinning wildly and laughing loudly, just like his father always does.

“Morning, Niall.” Harry says to him, Niall smiling up at him and Louis and telling them a good morning in kind before going over to Barbara and kissing her cheek gently.  

“Morning, babes.” He says to her and she smiles softly at him, the irritation in her expression falling away when she picks up Kelby from her husband’s arms.

“Good morning little baby boy.” She coos to Kelby and he smiles up at her; she picks up his car-seat from the floor behind the table and places it on a chair, settling him into it and strapping him in. He’s immediately distracted by the toys hanging from the bar, his tiny fists punching the mirror that also substitutes as a rattle. It’s only vaguely annoying, and Harry counts that as a testament to how much he loves children.

“What time do you have to be at Liam’s to get Gale?” Niall asks from where he’s stuck his head in one of the cabinets, on a hunt for who-knows-what. “Can you stay for breakfast?”

“‘Fraid not, Ni. Got to be there in,” Harry checks his phone, “twenty-five minutes, if we don’t want to be late.”

Niall pokes his head back out of the cabinet, a jar of Nutella in his hand, and he goes on the hunt for a loaf of bread, presumably. “Does the aquarium close at a weird time today?” He asks when he’s finally found it.

“No, Gale just wanted to see the rays being fed today.” Louis says, standing up from where he’d been entertaining Kelby. “Speaking of, Haz, she’ll be in a proper strop if we don’t get there early enough for her to get a good view; maybe we should head out?” He motions with his head towards the front door, and Harry nods in agreement.

“Yeah, probably should.” Louis smiles and picks up the car-seat, Kelby laughing when his mirror catches the sunlight and throws a beam on his face. Harry grabs Kelby’s diaper bag, Barbara heading upstairs, and Niall walking them to the front door and out to the car.

“We’re meeting tomorrow to do some more writing, right?” Niall asks them, helping Louis to put in Kelby’s car-seat right; it’s one of the more complicated ones, and neither Louis nor Harry have quite got the hang of it yet.

“Definitely. Can you believe it’s our sixth album? Crazy, how time goes by.” Harry says, slipping the diaper bag into the middle seat, in between Kelby’s and Gale’s car-seats.  Louis and Niall hum in agreement. “Shit, babe, did we bring the stroller?” Harry asks suddenly, Louis laughing and Niall groaning something about airheads taking care of his children.

“Of course, we put it in the boot last night so we wouldn’t forget.” Louis smiles at him like he’s the sun, and Harry feels 16 all over again. He grins back, slowly, and moves around the car to the passenger’s side. Niall hugs them both, gives Kelby a kiss goodbye, and goes back inside.

Harry slips into the passenger’s seat and buckles up while Louis goes around and hops into the driver’s seat.

\-- --

“Daddy!” Gale’s yelling, running out Liam’s front door and down the drive to where Louis is getting out of the car. Her little feet are quick, kicking up rocks and mud all over the back of her tights and ruining her Mary Janes, but it’s not like she doesn’t have an extra two outfits in her bag anyway. Harry and Louis have learned to take a closet with them whenever they have to take her out.

Harry’s currently trying to calm a very fussy Kelby by means of giving him his dummy, so he can’t see Louis’ face, but he knows he’s smiling widely and brightly when he replied “Hello, my shining knight!” and picks her up, twirling her around and tossing her into the air while she laughs brightly, her wild curls blowing around everywhere. Harry can see Sophia walk out the front door, her belly swollen from seven months of carrying twins and hand on her back to keep her balance, Liam following behind her, smile wide as he watches Gale and Louis laughing together.

Jesus, they’re all so fucking domestic.

When Harry’s made sure Kelby’s sufficiently pacified, he tickles him under his chin, kisses his cheek, and goes around the car to go see his daughter and husband. Sophia and Liam have just got there, laughing at something Gale’s said, Harry’s sure; she’s inherited both his and Louis’ sense of humour, and it makes for some interesting jokes.

Gale squeals upon seeing him, her body flopping over and almost toppling out of Louis’ arms, Louis scrambling to put his hand higher up on her back so she doesn’t fall out of his hold.

“Papa, papa!” She’s yelling, her little blotted hands outstretched towards him, and Harry swings her up into his arms, her laugh bouncing off his chest as they twirl around. “Liam and Sophia maked me pancakes this morning!”  

Harry’s eyebrows raise as he smiles down at her; her little legs around wrapped around his waist as she’s rested there, calm enough for him to just have one arm around her now. “Oh, really? What kind of pancakes?”

“Jus’ normal kind.” She says, her hands coming up so her palms faced the sky, shrugging off the statement.

“Oh,” Harry says, a twinkle in his eyes, “so, not as good as Papa’s banana-chocolate chip pancakes?”

She giggles, both of her hands covering her mouth; the white spots on her hands have been drawn in again, and Harry’s smile falls just a bit. While he’s all about creativity, he also knows she doesn’t like how her skin isn’t just one colour, like all the other children around her. Ernest and Doris are quite a few years older than her, but she’s always colouring in her skin, trying to find a marker that matches the rest of her tone. It breaks his heart that she’s so young and yet isn’t happy enough.

Harry takes her hand and kisses her palm, which is almost completely white but has brown marker all over.  “Gale,” He says to her, and her smile drops, knowing what’s coming; Louis is too distracted with talking to Liam about one of the songs on the new album and how Sophia’s coming along, but that’s fine. Harry doesn’t need Louis for everything.

“We talked about this, sweetheart. I know it’s hard to talk about feeling sad, and it’s easier to colour in your beautiful, beautiful skin than to talk to your Daddy or I, but- it’s something we should all work on together, okay?” He hates singling her out in this, he hates it so much, she goes through so much more teasing at fucking four and a half years old than Harry experienced in his entire childhood just because her skin isn’t all one colour and since when are children this mean? “We’ll talk about it tonight at dinner; how Daddy and I can help you feel better. How’s that sound?”

She nods, looking down at the wet grass, her lower lip pouty. Harry decides that’s enough talking about it for now and pokes a couple fingers in her side, tickling her and making her laugh loudly again.

“That’s better, darling. How about we go to the aquarium, yeah?”

Her smile lights up her whole face. “We gonna see the rays?” She asks, her little hands bunched up into fists and shaking with excitement.

“Absolutely!” Louis says, coming over from his conversation and smacking a kiss onto Gale’s cheek. “But we’ve gotta leave really soon if we wanna see them be fed like you were talking about yesterday, all right, love?” He squeezes her cheek a bit and she giggles, arms stretching out towards him and hands making little grabby-motions; Louis takes her from Harry’s arms and goes towards the car to strap her into her car-seat.

Harry smiles, watching them for a moment before turning to Liam and Sophia.

“Thanks for watching her for the night, guys, it was really nice.” He says to them, and they both smile back

“Of course! We love her to death; it’s never a hassle.” Sophia says, then grunts a little and moves her hand a little lower on her belly; their smiles turn towards each other, private, and Harry knows his conversation time is up.

“Alright, well, I’d best be off before those two kick up a fuss. You three have a great night!” He hugs them both before walking back to the car and hopping up in the passenger seat. He remembers to shout a brief “Don’t forget about tomorrow!” before Louis drives off.

**  
**  


“Papa, I no need help! Stop it!” Gale’s whining, her vowels elongating and her hands waving around everywhere so Harry can’t get to the straps on her car-seat; she continues patting at the buttons and not actually pressing on them, so she’s frustrated she can’t unbuckle herself but she’s also completely adamant that she can do it she’s refusing any help.

Harry sighs and pushes his hair out of the way. Louis’ already got Kelby out of the car and placed him into the stroller, both his and Gale’s diaper bags in the under-carriage compartment along with some packed lunches Harry made this morning for when lunch rolled around.

“Gale-” He tries, but she immediately interrupts.

“No no no no no no no I promise! I promise I got it Papa!” Her lower lip is quivering and she’s close to tears and Harry really wishes his girl understood her own limitations better; but, Christ, she’s hardly turned four, she’s not exactly in complete control of her bladder yet let alone complete self-awareness.

“Hazza, we’ve only got ten minutes.” Louis calls over to him, glancing at his phone and seeing the time. Harry nods at him.

“Gale,” He tries again, “if you don’t let Papa get you out, we’ll be late to the rays’ feeding and we won’t see it.”

Her little hands stop moving and she looks up at him with watery eyes. She nods, a small teardrop falling down and rolling onto her cheek, and Harry smiles at her bright as ever. He quickly and tidily unclasps the shoulder straps and then unbuckles the waist straps, picking her up from her armpits and swinging her down onto the pavement so her little shoes are firmly on the ground.

“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it, love?” He asks her and she shakes her head, trying not to smile. “Thought not. Now come on; take my hand and we’ll go see some fish.”

\-- --

Later, when they’re inside and their daughter is crowded up against the glass (but not touching it and quickly chastising any child who bands on the glass to “stop scaring the rays!”), Louis wraps an arm around Harry’s waist and kisses him on the cheek.

Harry looks down, smiling softly at his husband.

“What was that for?” He asks, pressing his own kiss to Louis’ mouth.

“Mmm,” Louis hums, “just love you a bit, I guess.” His eyebrows quirk and his lips tremble with a small laugh.

Harry giggles, and they kiss once more.

“I love you a bit, too.”

* * *

_**ONE DIRECTION SPILL THE BEANS ON- WELL, EVERYTHING** _

_Now, we all know about that picture from the other day- yes, you know, the one where it looked like our lovely Hazza and Lou bears were playing a resounding game of Mario Kart in the bathroom. Well, they asked us to do an interview with them- which we recorded and you can watch on our YouTube account right here!_

__

_For the little kittens out there who can’t handle listening to Zayn’s inhuman tones or our little leprechaun’s laughter without wanting to combust into something that looks a lot like glitter and a bit of sunshine splashed through (we totes get the feeling), we decided to write down a few of the important bits until you can get a reign on your feels-fest._

“Can someone remind me why you decided to go to Sugarscape again?” Niall asks, looking vaguely affronted at being called a “little leprechaun.” They’re all gathered around Harry on the couch, Niall leaning over the back of it, Louis to his left, Zayn on his right, and Liam in the kitchen brewing up some tea. It’s the homiest he’s felt in a while. “Or why we’re reading the article out loud? We were all there.”

“It’s tradition, Niall!” Harry says, looking up from the laptop screen to where Niall’s standing behind him. “We always read Sugarscape’s articles about us aloud.”

They all hear Liam laugh from the kitchen. “Not since 2011, mate!” He calls out to them which, yeah, alright.

“Come on babe,” Louis puts in, placing his head on Harry’s shoulder and only feeling a little bit endeared (no, really), “go on.”

“No, I think Ni’s got a point, don’t he?” Zayn says, and he and Niall smile at each other. Disgusting. “We were all there, we should just see what the fans’re saying. S’why we all got together today mainly, yeah?”

They all nod, Liam coming in with the mugs and Niall going to help him.

Harry pouts. “But I like doing the voices.”

“You can read it out later, babe; I’ll listen to you ‘till the cows come home.” Louis says, giving him a smacking kiss on the cheek full of love.

“Alright,” Harry says, only blushing slightly, “shall I pull up Twitter, then? Or just read the comments here, to start?”

“Twitter’s always shit; nothing useful. I say we just look for other articles on us. You know Sugarscape’s fans are crazier than normal.” Liam puts in, dropping next to Louis on the couch and handing him a mug of tea. Louis briefly recalls their X Factor days when he’d only let Harry prepare his tea (other than himself, of course), but now he’s got five whole people he trusts with it (the fifth being none other than his mother, thank you very much).

His own family.

“This was released an hour ago, Li, I don’t think they’ve got others yet.” Zayn scoffs. Niall bursts into laughter behind them, loud and raucous as always.

“Mate, have you not been here the past four and half years? If it was released ten minutes ago, you know there’s other articles on it.”

Zayn purses his lips and, well, it’s really true.

“Whatever.”

“Look, I’ll just Google us.” Harry says, a tad anxious over the whole thing. He types in “One Direction recent news” and gets about 200 million results; the first to come up is something on Perez Hilton’s blog and they all immediately veto it (“Trash,” is what Louis puts in and mouses down the page for Harry like the very helpful boyfriend he is).

“What about that one?” Liam asks, pointing at one from the Daily Mail, published fifteen minutes ago.  The title is “Is Larry Stylinson real?”

Zayn frowns, furrowing his eyebrows. “I hate how they still pose it as a question. You guys came out and they’re still treating it like Taylor’s gonna show up tomorrow.”

“She’s got a girlfriend now, hasn’t she?” Liam asks and all but Harry shrug, Louis looking irritated at where the conversation’s gone.

“Yeah, she has.” Harry says and he would have gone on to talk about her because Taylor’s girlfriend is really nice and kind but Louis interrupts with an “Are you lads quite finished, then?” because, really, he knows they were a PR stunt but there is literally no reason for them to still be this close.  

Harry clicks on one from the Mirror titled “Larry Stylinson Confirmed! Directioners in a Frenzy” and they bypass the article and immediately go to the comments section; they’ve always said that the media can go fuck themselves, but their fans opinions are what’s important.

_AHHHHHHHHH HAHAHAHA AH AHA AH FUCKGIF DSASFTIN SUCK MY DIK LOSERS LMA OOOOOOO IDEC THAT THEYRE GOING ON BREAK THEY DESERVE IT FUCK MODEST IM ON BLAST BABY_ is the first comment, and it’s certainly entertaining, if nothing else. There’s a few more like it, and then:

_Is nobody else seeing anything else in this article? Zayn says he’s sick of the racist comments directed towards him, /and the boys backed him the fuck up/, like, fuck all y’all, I’m here for my brown boy being treated like the god he is, b y e_ and they all look to see Zayn smiling as bright as sunlight; Niall ruffles his hair, murmuring a “We’ll always be here for you, Z” and it’s only slightly tear-inducing.

A reply to that comment is _niall also came out as pan and liam said hes sorry for not being able to apologize for all of his shit from early last year but u just ignore that u homophobic bitch_ and they decide to ignore the rest of the thread.

A comment further down is _ALRIGHT COOL WE GET IT THEY’RE “””TOGETHER””” IT’S PROBABLY JUST A PR STUNT LIKE LMAO YALL SO STUPID THEYRE JUST FUCKING GREEDY AND WANT MONEY SINCE THEY ALSO SAID THEYRE GOING ON BREAK_ and it’s a bit gross, but then a reply says _bitch this aint ATAB grow the fuck up_ and it’s been upvoted three hundred times, despite not making any sense at all to the five of them, but they move on.

Harry goes to find a new article, and it seems there’s been a few new ones since he last checked.

They spend the next hour scrolling through comment threads, not daring to go anywhere near Tumblr as the day goes on, but they’re sure the website is in a fucking meltdown.

“Well, Pezza’s asking for me, I think I’d best be going.” Zayn says, typing something on his phone and standing up, stretching a bit. “Niall, you want me to give you a lift home, or are you good?”  

“Uh, I think I’m good- or, wait, hang on…” Niall says from where he’s rinsing out his mug, and begins rummaging through his pockets for his phone. Louis looks to the coffee table beneath his own feet and chuckles, grabbing Niall’s mobile from where it’s sitting on the table.

“Ni, think you’re looking for this.” He says; Niall pokes his head through the window between the kitchen and the living room, his face brightening.

“Sick, thanks!”

He comes and grabs it, sending a quick text to Barbara and his tone goes off a moment later.

“Yeah, I need a ride, Z, sorry.” He’s sending off another text and Zayn just grabs his hat for him, holding it out.

“Come on, then, I need to get home soon. She wants me to help with some of the cards for the wedding, now that we finally have time for a breather.”

They walk out after a few hugs and promises to see each other over the weekend, Liam following soon after.

“It was nice, being able to see this for ourselves for once. To see it just by ourselves.” Harry says, picking up Liam and Zayn’s mugs, Louis following him to the kitchen with his own. That was one of the great, unexpected things about Niall; he always cleans up after himself.

\-- --

“Babe, did you want to finish off that Chinese from yesterday or the stew from lunch?” Harry calls out, looking into their fridge and fiddling with his engagement ring that Louis had given him early last year. There had been many engagement rings and popped questions since then, but this was the first and, consequently, Harry’s favourite. The turquoise stones shine in the lights of their kitchen as he plays with it.

“Uh, the Chinese, I think.” Louis answers from behind him, his voice shaking, his pocket heavy. He doesn’t- this really isn’t the place nor the time for this, but he also can’t imagine a better moment or a better place.

Harry turns around, lips turned downward and- shit, yeah, he’s always been able to tell when Louis’ nervous, fuck.

“Babe, what’s wrong?” Harry asks. He wraps his hands around Louis’ and brings them up to his mouth, kissing the knuckles softly.

“I- shit, I really shouldn’t be nervous about this…” Louis’ voice trails off, his eyes ducking to the side. He’s going to start blushing any second now and he knows Harry will pick up on the atmosphere, but-

“You know you can always tell me, love.” He pauses, voice uncertain. “Did I do something?”

This gets Louis’ attention. “What? No, of course not. I’m just being a tit about something, just-” He stops himself. “Fuck it.”

He gets one of his hands free and shoves it into his right pocket, kneeling in the middle of the kitchen, and-

“Louis, you know I’m a sure thing.” Harry chuckles, but his eyes are watering, his face so bright and happy it’s incredible.

Louis opens the box, and there it sits: a simple, beautiful, golden engagement ring.

“Harry Styles...I know I’ve proposed to you tens of times, and you’ve done the same, but- we can actually have this now. We’re finally allowed to fulfil the promise I’ve been making to you for three years. We’re open to love, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life in love with you.” Louis’ crying a bit now, as well, and he’s honestly never felt more in love.

“Me either, darling.” And Louis’ standing up and they’re kissing in the middle of their kitchen, in the home they’ll raise their children in, with the red wall and the huge back garden and the playroom they’ve already started collecting decorations for. This is the future in one tiny, small ring; all their promises, all their songs, rolled up into a bit of gold.

“You know we can’t upstage Zayn and Perrie’s wedding, though, right?” Harry mumbles against Louis’ mouth, and he groans loudly.

“I can’t let him beat me!”

Harry laughs, loud as always when Louis is concerned. “Is this a competition?”

“A competition to make the spouse the happiest person in the entire bloomin’ universe?” Louis laughs. “Absolutely.”

They kiss again, sound and sweet.

* * *

“Happy birthday!” Everyone yells out once the lights are on, and Gale immediately screams and begins crying.

Harry is going to _kill_ Niall for this, honestly.

Niall at least looks incredibly guilty and sorry, but Zayn comes over and tries to help calm her down; Harry’s about to tell Zayn it’s alright, really, he’s got her, but then Gale is reaching her arms out to Zayn and asking him to hold her and _really_?

Harry isn’t quite sure if he’s allowed to feel offended or not.

But Zayn takes her into his arms, singing to her softly to calm her down and taking her over to Perrie as the various people in the room (Harry sees both his and Louis’ family, Liam and Sophia chatting off in the corner and Niall shuffling around, obviously trying to be inconspicuous and failing magnificently) move about.

“I’m going to kill Niall.” Louis mutters from behind Harry. “We specifically told him she’s too young for surprise parties, and what does he do? Does it anyway!”

Harry places a hand on Louis’ arm, trying to calm him down.

“I’m annoyed too, but-” Harry has to pause a moment to chuckle, “it is what it is, okay?” Louis smiles softly at the reference. “Z’s got her now; she’ll be fine in a moment.” Harry places a kiss to Louis’ cheek, and that seems to do the trick, as the fire leaves him in a huff.

“Alright, alright. You’re right; sorry.”

To Niall’s credit, he stops skulking about and apologises within two minutes, after he’s helped Zayn calm Gale down a bit more and made her laugh with a stupid joke involving three donkeys and a rutabaga.

“I’m sorry, guys, I should have listened to you.” Niall says, looking decently abashed and blushing. “I really just wanted her to have fun, I didn’t mean to scare her.”

“It’s alright, Ni; just try not to kill our daughter in your contest to be the best uncle, yeah?”

Niall laughs at that, and Liam and Sophia join them.

“I promise I tried to stop him, but, well- it’s Niall.” Liam says, and it’s not like it isn’t true. They all drift over to Zayn, Perrie, and Gale. Gale is standing on the kitchen floor, Perrie sitting in a chair, and Gale’s small, small hands stroking Perrie’s huge belly in awe.

“You ate you baby?” Gale whispers, and everyone within hearing distance laughs loudly. Zayn’s eyes crinkle in pride and love as he kneels next to Perrie, placing his hand next to Gale’s.

“No, I didn’t eat them.” Perrie says to her, then glances to Harry and Louis, testing how much they’ll allow her to know. Harry shrugs, and turns to face Louis, who also shrugs over at Perrie, leaving it up to her. They know her well enough to not literally tell her how babies are made. “Me and Zayn just loved each other hard enough,” everyone laughs again, Zayn- and Perrie’s faces pinking as her words catch up to her, “and we have a baby now.”

Gale gasps. “Oh! Is that how I gots my Daddy and Papa? Because I loves them so much?”

“More or less,” Louis adds, stealing a crisp from a nearby bowl and biting into it. Harry smiles at him fondly.

“This is the cooliest.” Gale says, and the baby must kick because she’s removing her hand like something’s shocked her. “Did I breaked it?” Her voice is high and worried, and Perrie just moves her own hand to feel where the baby kicked.

“Of course not, dove,” Zayn’s saying, “the baby just likes to kick sometimes. It likes getting exercise in, eh?” He presses a kiss to Perrie’s stomach, his wife smiling so wide, and she’s really glowing.

“Oh, okay.” Gale shrugs and places her hands back to Perrie’s belly and they all start talking again while Gale just sits and stares for a long time at Perrie’s stomach.

Harry walks over to his daughter after she’s just been looking at Perrie’s belly for nigh on ten minutes, and despite Perrie’s protests that it’s really fine and sweet, even, Harry’s wondering what she’s thinking.

“What’s going through your mind, love?” Harry asks her gently.

“How’s it gonna get out? It cannot just stay there, it cold sometimes and it no have clothes!” Her eyebrows are pushed together in her worry and concentration and, alright, Harry really doesn’t know how to explain this to her.

But, fuck it, she’s just turned three today and it’s not like she’s gonna chastise him in a few years for not telling her about the vagina’s intricacies.

“A doctor’s gonna put a magical ointment on Perrie’s belly-button and the baby’ll come out of there, like a little flower.” Never let it be said Harry isn’t quick with a story.

Gale gasps loudly, excited. “Really?”

“Really.” Harry refrains from saying it twice; _Shrek_ scarred them all.

“I love magic. And flowers. And babies.” She suddenly turns her head to look at Harry. “Zayn love me, and I love Zayn; why I no get a baby?”

Zayn looks horrified, to say the least, but Gale’s third birthday is one of entertainment and laughter and love. There’s a lot of that to go around.

* * *

If anything could top Louis’ love for Harry, it would be Zayn’s love for Perrie.

The wedding is magnificent and gorgeous; soft creams and pinks with dashes of mint green everywhere, and to see how much they truly care for each other is amazing. Perrie has henna covering her hands and some of her arms, and her traditional white wedding dress contrasts nicely with Zayn’s bright sherwani. She has bright flowers tied into her loose hair, and she’s never looked more radiant.

There’s quite a few cakes scattered about the tents in Perrie and Zayn’s back garden and laughter spills out into the night as Niall attempts to serenade the entirety of both Zayn’s and Perrie’s families, and the grandmothers get a huge hoot out of the whole ordeal as he dances with them all.

Harry and Louis dance with each other at almost every opportunity; whether it be slow-dancing and twirling along to Celine Dion, or joining in on the dances that Zayn’s family start up, and children run around, giggling underfoot.

Ernest and Doris are five years old, by now, and they cause all sorts of mayhem, including knocking over one of the (thankfully) smaller cakes onto the ground.

It’s a night of love and laughter and friendship and _family_ , and Louis’ heart is heavy in the best possible way.

\-- --

Louis is bent over their kitchen table, Harry fucking moans out of him with every harsh thrust, when he thinks about it the first time.

Which, alright, fucking weird time to think about how much he wants to start a family with his husband (the reminder of their marriage sends a zing of electricity down his back and he clutches the table a bit tighter, clenching and causing Harry to moan loudly, slamming into him harder), but the thought’s there now, and it won’t _leave_. They’ve talked about starting a family together before, of course; how great of a family they’ll be, the litter of children and pets they’ll have, how hectic their schedule will be when they get off break in two years but not even caring.

But now- now they’re out, and they’re married, and they can, and it’s- it’s everything.

When they’ve finished, Harry carries him to their bedroom, spent and sweaty and with come scattered across their skin and dripping out of Louis’ arse.

As they’re settling down to sleep, Louis gains the courage.

“I want a baby.” He whispers, sending it out across the bed; Harry shifts, stirring from his half-sleep, and faces him.

“Really? You mean it?” His voice is sleep-soft, but sweet.

“Yeah. I really do.” Louis answers and he can barely make out Harry’s smile in the darkness of the bedroom, but he can definitely feel it against his own smile a moment later as Harry meets him in the middle.

“We’ll make a few calls tomorrow. How’s that sound?” Harry whispers in between kisses, quiet so as not to disturb the blanket of calm and happiness that’s surrounded them.

“Perfect.”

* * *

“Papa, why is I not in these pictures?” Gale asks, her little lisp making Harry want to cry from how cute it is. At two-and-a-quarter years old, she’d started speaking a bit late, but thankfully caught on quickly. Louis and Harry had begun talking about looking into speech pathologists, if she hadn’t begun attempting to talk by two-and-a-half, but they hadn’t needed to resort to that.

“Which pictures, love, can you show me?” He asks her and she smiles up at him, shoving the pictures into his hands.

They’re from the wedding and his smile grows that much softer.

“I not here, but Granna Jay and Granna Anne is! Why?”

“Are, love, they are in the picture. And that’s because we didn’t have you, yet.”

She pouts, clearly not happy with the answer.

“I always with you! We family!” She stomps her foot and Harry raises his eyebrow. “Sowwy,” she mumbles, and he picks her up and sets her down in his lap on the couch, pulling the clump of pictures towards them both.

Louis’ out helping Sophia and Liam with getting things finished for the wedding, so he’s been left alone for the day with Gale. Which is not all that bad of a deal, in Harry’s opinion. A Papa-and-Gale day is just what he’s been wanting for a while.

“Of course we’re family, and we’ll never not be a family, pumpkin, but there was a time when it was just me and Daddy all by ourselves. We hadn’t yet got you; you were a very special gift for the both of us, you know.” He smooches her right on her cheek, where the white around her mouth has spread to a bit, dotting it slightly. The dermatologist had said her vitiligo would continue spreading randomly throughout her lifetime, as it’s a completely unpredictable disease; Harry’s just grateful it’s not harming her. He hates every time he comes across a child in pain; no person should experience anything but happiness in their lives, let alone an innocent child.

“Like a stork?” She turns her wide eyes up at him and he laughs.

“I don’t know who told you about storks, kiddo, but no, not like a stork. Me and your Daddy adopted you, from where you were in a home. You know you were already four months old when we met you for the first time? And we had to wait three whole months just to take you home that first time!” Harry loves telling Gale stories from when she was younger; his voice grows a bit higher than usual, his words run together in his excitement over it.

Gale sighs deeply. “Papa, you too much for me today.”

He just laughs.

“Alright, alright. Fair point, my blueberry.” He bops her on the nose.

“I not a blueberry! You a blueberry, Papa.” She laughs loudly, her little hands waving about in an abstract manner, without purpose.

“Am I? My goodness, whatever shall we do? What happens if Daddy comes home and sees you’ve turned me into a blueberry?” Harry’s smiling and laughing with his daughter, standing up and spinning them around as their laughter echoes off the walls.

“Papa, Papa, stop! I dizzy!” Gale’s speech is interrupted by her giggles and- _and_ a pair of arms surrounding them both and stopping their impromptu dance.

“What’s all this, then?” Louis’ saying, joining in their laughter, his voice so soft and sweet Harry can’t resist turning his head and kissing him right then.

“Daddy, Papa’s a blueberry!” She’s quick to inform him and, of course, Louis’ mouth drops in surprise.

“A blueberry? Well, we have to find the cure immediately!” Louis takes Gale out of Harry’s arms and sets her on the ground. “Come search with me, O Great Wizard, I shall be your guide!”

And they were off, searching through the house for random ingredients that Louis lists off at random (a hamper, coconut oil, saffron, a tiara, among other things). Harry is left to the living room, awaiting his cure, so he takes another look at the wedding photos Gale had dug up from the cabinet.

It had been a small but extravagant affair; their families and close friends were in attendance and nobody else. The theme was, of course, nautical; name cards with anchors printed on the sides, flowers tied up with rope and placed in tiny ships as centrepieces, blue and white and beige covering everything.

Above the altar hung two very familiar birds, and everyone was in tears at some point during the night.

And when Gale and Louis came back over to his side, arms filled with random objects and foods and declaring him cured, he kissed them both soundly, laughter spilling across their home.

**  
**  
  


* * *

It takes a few weeks to get the paperwork pending, another month to find an orphanage that’ll allow a high-profile same-sex couple to visit, and three days to get a paparazzi ban placed on the street the orphanage is on.

The day they’re allowed to see the children, Louis is so nervous his hands refuse to stop shaking and Harry has to drive them there. The building is tall and squished in among the other buildings downtown, the steps cracked and the flowers trying their best to reach for the covered London sun. It’s an older building, definitely, and Louis can tell just by the looks of it that he’ll be cold within a few minutes of stepping inside.

“What if none of them like us, Haz?”

Harry doesn’t answer him; just kisses him soundly, takes his hand, and walks them up the steps and inside.

\-- --

“So, everything seems to be in order here, Mr. Styles, if I could just-”

“It’s Tomlinson, actually.” Harry says proudly, smile wide and eyes glinting. Louis’ smirk is prominent.

The woman, a Mrs. Hickelby, blushes strongly. “Er, right, of course. Anyway, I just need a couple more signatures to say you’ll abide by the rules of the house, etc, and then you can visit the back garden where a few of the older kids will be and then the nursery.” She hands them the papers, hands shaking, and Louis winces; they’ve shook her up quite good, it seems.

“Thank you, ma’am.” Louis’ laying it on extra thick, trying to ease her nerves as a means of distraction. It hasn’t been very successful, so far.

“You’re welcome.” She adjusts her sharp glasses and moves some papers around, probably trying to seem busy than anything else. Louis signs his name on all the dotted lines, Harry doing the same next to him, and afterwards they’re given free reign, more or less.

They head out to the back garden to play some football and to play around with some of the older kids, despite knowing nothing will come out of it. They’ve been thinking about bringing the boys around sometime in the future for some charity projects, maybe, so it wouldn’t hurt to form some bonds with some of the kids here already.

They’ve already discussed that their next child will be seven or so. Surrogacy is out of the list, for them, as having one of their sisters surrogate for them would be weird and uncomfortable, and having a friend do it would be the same, and having a stranger do so at this point in their career would bring about too many complications; they came to terms long ago they would have no children of their own.

There’s around twenty kids outside, ranging from five to seventeen, and Louis and Harry play all sorts of games with them; football, monkey in the middle, duck duck goose, and draughts, even, when Harry felt he could contribute no more to the world of sports.

There’s Andy, who’s nine and loves to sing and just about cried when he saw who had walked outside. There’s Alyssa, who’s eleven and is petitioning to be on her school’s boys-only football team. There’s Shondia, who’s ten and lists off every element on the periodic table first by molecular weight, then by elemental type.

And while Louis wants to give them all a happy home, he knows he won’t find his son or daughter or whoever they want to be out here.  

* * *

Gale’s first birthday is spent in the hospital.

Harry had just looked away for three seconds, gone into the kitchen to make her morning bottle while she toddled around, still getting used to her feet, when he’d heard the most sickening crash in his entire life. He’d dropped her bottle onto the floor, half-mixed water and milk powder spilling onto the wood, and he’d run into the living room to see Gale buried beneath a stack of books and crying her little lungs out. He’d flung the books aside and picked her little, tiny, fragile body up, holding her so gently so as not to hurt her further; fat tears were rolling down her dark cheeks, snot coming out of her nose, and great big sobs were coming out of her.

She is so small, and Harry’s let her down in the worst way possible.

He’s sitting in a chair next to Gale’s bed in the ER as a doctor inspects her thoroughly, checking for any deep cuts on her body or things like that. Louis hadn’t picked up his phone; he had gone out to pick up her cake and the balloons, and Harry’d let a fucking _shelf of books_ fall on his daughter and he had to tell his husband through a fucking voice message. He should be arrested, honestly; he hasn’t stopped crying since he found her, hasn’t been able to calm himself down enough and was forced to call up Liam to help him out since he’s clearly the most fucking useless father in the history of fathers.

His hands won’t stop fucking _shaking_ and he’s watching as Liam takes care of his daughter. She’s cried herself to sleep, exhausted by this entire thing, in pain and crying, and now she’s asleep with Liam by her side and stroking her hair.

It’s better, probably. He’d almost killed her. He’d almost fucking _killed_ their daughter and- _shit_.

Harry hears a bit of commotion at the ER’s desk and looks up; Louis is there, looking frantic and worried and there’s no way Harry’s going to be able to face him. He feels sick; he’s so disgusting, honestly. The grossest human being. He hopes Louis refuses to look at him, there’s no way he deserves that after what he’s done.

“Gale, baby, are you alright?” He hears Louis ask her, but he knows it’s mainly a question for the doctor since Gale hasn’t begun speaking yet.

“She’s got some deep bruising, of course, but no broken bones or cuts, which is really lucky, considering.”

Harry knows that is meant for him. He feels every word like a knife in his gut.

“Can I- can I hold her?”

Harry can hear the accusation in Louis’ voice. Can hear the “Why isn’t she already being held?”

“She’s really sensitive right now, so I’d say no, and we’ve got to x-ray her anyway to check for internal bleeding,” Harry wants to throw up, “but afterwards I’ll hook her up to an IV for a local anaesthetic that should help a lot with the pain for right now. We’ll write a script for some pain pills for her to take every morning, maybe two or three times a day if she absolutely needs it, for the next two weeks as the healing goes on, but in about two weeks she’ll need to come back for a check-up.” The doctor writes a few things in a scrawling, loopy script on Gale’s chart.

“Your husband did the right thing by bringing her here immediately, Mr. Tomlinson.” Harry looks up at that, barely managing to cover a scoff. “You’d be surprised by the amount of families that would just calm her down and give her some baby aspirin to help her a bit. Accidents happen all the time with kids, of course, and this kind of thing is to be expected, especially in someone who’s just learning how to walk, but it’s still important to make sure they’re healthy and undamaged.”

Harry speaks for the first time since he’s checked Gale in here. “I really doubt shelves of books fall on children all the time, doctor. I’m shite, you can say it.”

The doctor looks him right in the eye. “Mr. Tomlinson, last week a child crawled into a pre-heated stove while the mother was washing dishes and had to be brought in for two-degree burns. Two weeks ago a four-month-old was backed over in a driveway and now they're paralyzed on their right side. Last weekend a hot iron fell on top of a child’s head and killed the child immediately. What happened to your daughter is sad, yes, but she is absolutely fine, and you should stop beating yourself up over it.” The doctor finishes his notes while Harry sits, eyes and mouth wide open. He turns back to Louis and Liam, “May I take Gale to go get a few x-rays? You can, of course, come with to watch.”

Louis looks at Harry, tears in his eyes as he holds Gale’s small, small hand as gently as possible.

“Hazza?” It’s not so much a question as a plea, and Harry’s always been helpless to Louis; the life slumps out of him, he sighs deeply, rubs his eyes free of tears, and nods, standing up. He tilts a bit when he does, the lack adrenaline in his veins making him woozy, but Liam helps him straighten.

Liam sees his time to go, and leaves quietly, giving Gale a small kiss on her forehead and a hug to Louis and Harry.

“Let’s go,” the doctor says, placing Gale in a rolling crib and pushing her along the halls, Louis and Harry following him. Harry’s immensely glad she’s asleep and doesn’t rouse easily; they get her tiny body on the table easily enough, take some pictures, move the x-ray around some more, take a few more pictures, place her back into the crib, and it’s done.

They take her to the nursery to sleep, to free up the bed in the ER and to wait for the scans in peace. Louis waits for Harry to pick Gale up and place her in the bed, but he ends up having to do it himself as Harry refuses to allow himself to touch her. He can’t do it.

Louis turns to him once she’s tucked in and buries himself in Harry’s neck.

“We need to baby-proof the house the second we get home, you hear me?” Louis’ crying hard, now, going through a crash from his own adrenaline rush. “W-we’re taking her to my mum’s, and we’re going to get our house safe for our daughter. This can’t happen again.”

Harry reluctantly holds Louis closer, and this somehow sets off his tears again.

“I’m so sorry, Louis. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I should have-”

“Stop that.” Louis looks him in the eyes. “It was an accident. You’re forgiven. It would have happened even if you were in the room, and what’s done is done. And don’t you bloody _dare_ try to check out of the situation out of some stupid fucking misplaced guilt, alright, because I need you here and Gale needs you here and you will _not_ leave us here.”  Louis holds his head in between his two small hands, and Harry is inexplicably reminded of Gale. “Do you understand?”

Harry can only nod numbly, and they return to their embrace.

\-- --

There’s no internal bleeding to be found, and a bit of the weight on Harry’s chest lifts.

\-- --

It’s blown up all over the news, of course, that Harry’s a shite father and Louis should leave him for the sake of Gale; it also gives right-wing conservative groups in America fodder to use against same-sex adoption rights.

Louis holds him tightly every night, and Harry learns what being a family truly means; always there, never ceasing. Whole.

Love.

\-- --

Gale learns to walk successfully after falling down the stairs twice, continuously running into walls and furniture, and falling over countless times. It’s a learning process for all of them.

 

* * *

The first few months are hectic, to put it bluntly (and politely). Louis would describe it more like a living hell.

When they had first met Abigail, she was five months old and just beginning to crawl; now, at a solid seven-and-a-half months, she was cruising and staying in their house under the foster system until they were approved for complete adoption.

Gale, as Harry has taken to calling her, gives Louis at least three heart attacks in any given day when she tries standing by herself and promptly falls over. She doesn’t cry much about falling, thank Christ, but she’s more prone to it if Harry’s around, as Harry tends to immediately run to her side and fuss over her so she thinks something is wrong, as opposed to Louis, who tends to freeze in fear whenever he sees her fall over. If she doesn’t know something is supposed to be wrong, she’ll carry on, and Louis has to wait a good few minutes for his heartbeat to resume its normal pace.

Mealtimes are not good times in the Tomlinson household; Harry cooks enough for an army, most times, so it’s not like there’s a lack of food- there’s just a lack of food going into their daughter’s belly. At this age, she’s supposed to be weaned off of her bottle and fed baby food; she doesn’t want the bottle, which is good, but she also doesn’t want her food and will fling it everywhere and spit it up all over Louis’ face, laughing gleefully the entire time.

It’s really unfair.

Harry always comes over when he’s done cleaning up, cooing to her and coaxing her into eating and cleaning her up afterwards while Louis is forced to change his outfit every morning.

(He learns quickly to throw on yesterday’s outfit first, try to feed Gale, fail, throw the outfit in the laundry hamper, and to get dressed for the day. It works well enough.)

“Come on, Gale, here comes the aeroplane!” His voice makes vaguely engine-like sounds, swooping the spoon into her open mouth, and just as he’s about to declare success and that he’s finally done it- she spits it up again. Harry comes over quickly, warm dishcloth in hand as he wipes up Gale’s mess from her mouth and torso.

Louis watches in horror as Harry feeds her cleanly, smoothly, and quickly.

“I give up,” Louis declares, huffing and scooting his chair back roughly before marching right out of the kitchen. “This isn’t worth it!”

He gets Harry to laugh, though, and maybe it is all a bit worth it.

\-- --

When Gale turns nine months old, though, the tables quickly turn to Louis. Gale is old enough to switch over from baby foods to, like, real food, and Harry revels in any opportunity to make something nutritious and probably disgusting. Louis just pops some chicken nuggets into the oven for a bit, while the green bean casserole Harry made is in the Crock pot, and places a couple on her high chair’s table, cuts them up, and lets her go to town. He gets out the baby food (pureed carrots and peas and mash), since they’re supposed to acclimate her to the adult food by slowly lessening the amount of baby food she eats with each meal. Just like when Zayn and Louis quit smoking, finally.

(Although, that process involved a lot more pain and withdrawal, so perhaps it isn’t the best comparison).

He turns back to try and feed her the baby food when he sees she’s already eaten three of the ten or so chicken nugget pieces in front of her, with no help at all on his end. Louis smiles, gets out his phone, and takes a quick few pictures of her eating them up with her mouth wide and small, tiny little teeth gnashing and on display. It reminds him a bit of those dioramas of dinosaurs eating their prey, but no matter; his daughter is the prettiest stegosaurus of them all.

Harry can’t get her to eat anything he makes her, and so Gale’s diet consists of a steady stream of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, chicken nuggets, pasta, and instant macaroni and cheese.

He’s never felt more proud.

* * *

They go up the stairs, to the playroom where the younger ones are. They came to this orphanage for the express purpose that they have young babies; despite knowing the older children need a home more, Harry and Louis both know they need a child who is still almost a baby as their first one, or it wouldn’t feel right.

Harry’s long fingers wrap around the old brass knob, and turn. The door opens with a creak, and a young boy around twenty years old greets them.

“Hi! You must be the Tomlinsons.” He smiles at them and waves the hand of the baby currently in his arms. “I’d shake your hands, but,” he motions with his eyebrows at the girl in his arms, “bit preoccupied.”

“No worries,” Louis somehow manages to get out. There are about fifteen cribs in this room alone, pushed up against the walls with a play area in the middle full of toys and play houses and kids playing with them.

“So,” the boy continues, “I’m Ben. This is our nursery for the newborns to two-year-olds, and we’ve got twelve kids in here. Bit cramped, but we do what we can. This little doll is Shelley, and she’s three months, so she’s currently our youngest.” Shelley just blinks up at them as they wave hello to her.

“You can just play with the kids for a bit; they’ve all got name tags on for today, and they’re really open and love to talk, if they can; Lucas over there’ll talk your ear off if you let him.”

“Thanks,” Harry says, smiling, and immediately walking over to the kids playing without a care in the world. Louis can hardly think, but follows him anyway while Ben continues feeding Shelley.

All of the kids are nice and sweet, and it breaks Louis’ whole fucking heart they can’t take all of them home with them today. These babies don’t deserve the shit that’s been given to them; they all deserve a loving, warm, kind home that will appreciate them for the rest of their days, not this cold building. Ben seems kind enough, but there’s twelve children under his care on top of possible university studies and maybe even another job; these children can’t possibly have the kind of stable love Louis received from his mum, if not his dads, during his own childhood.  

Lucas does indeed chat about NASA, of all things, for ages, listing off facts about Jupiter and the asteroid belt. Amelia says she wants to be David Beckham when she grows up, and her “bestest, bestest friend ever” Jack says he wants to be Posh Spice, and Louis’ never heard anything sweeter in his entire life. Sandra babbles on about nothing, drooling cutely and tugging on his glasses until their smudged enough for him to have to wipe them three separate times. Lacey keeps piling dolls and toy trucks onto his lap even while he’s holding Sandra, and Louis assumes it’s because he’s not playing with toys and that must not sit right with her at all.

It’s not until he feels a bite on his ankle that he notices tiny, small Abigail, with her dark skin and white mouth and eyes. Sandra has since crawled off, so he picks her up and smiles at her in a way he knows his eyes are crinkling; she smiles right back at him, and he knows. He _knows_.

“Hazza,” he calls out softly and Harry’s soon by his side, wrapping his arms around Louis’ middle.

“Hello, Abigail,” Harry coos out and Abigail giggles in response, bubbling a bit. Louis looks up at Harry, hoping beyond hope that- yes, there it is, that starlight in his eyes as he makes faces at Abigail and making her laugh.

There have been countless Most Important Moments in Louis’ lifetime (seeing Harry for the first time in line for the X Factor, meeting him in the bathroom, One Direction being formed, kissing Harry for the first time, fucking Harry for the first time, proposing to Harry for the first time, proposing to Harry for the last time, marrying Harry), but he thinks this might be the most important moment of all; the moment when it stops being just LouisandHarry and begins being LouisandHarryandAbigail.

 **  
** The moment Louis finally finds his _family_.

**Author's Note:**

> I made a (brief) reference to infinitelymint’s And Then a Bit, which you can read here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1415272/chapters/2972746 ! I did get permission to include it :)
> 
> i'd really like to think I made Gale's skin condition clear, but if not, you can read up more on vitiligo here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo
> 
> I looked up traditional Pakistani weddings, and as I'm neither Pakistani nor Muslim, please tell me if something I wrote in here was wrong/offensive in any way at all, and I'll change it! 
> 
> Again, I had so much fun writing this, and thank you to Sophie and Zoe for running the winter exchange this year, y'all are awesome :D


End file.
